I'd like to offer my services to the Quannum family. I may not have the greatest expertise in the fields of quality control or electronically inclined soul music, but really, what the fuck is going on over there? Is the office awash with bad speed and various other lab derived narcotics? There seems to be no other explanation for the recent unleashing of inconsolably worthless drivel from the once swaggerin' label. From Latyrx to Apsci is a pretty long journey. And obviously, no one wants to remake the same album over and over again with a varying cast of participants, but this needs to end.
After taking a listen to General Elektrics a few days back, I was able to at least figure that the music that supports Hervé "RV" Salters' singing was more than passable even if he isn't. Best Crisis Ever, however is a completely different story. Granted, I'm not a foreigner and I never lived in New York - being there for a week at a time seems like more than enough. So perhaps the fact that the production here, no matter how deftly constructed it may be, is plainly offensive to me can be explained by my 'otherness' in an industry doused in well travelled and cultured peoples. I am surely not one of them.
With the likes of Lady GaGa and MIA - neither of which I particularly care about - making huge in roads into the left field of popular music, Apsci should have a decent shot at garnering some heavy attention. It appears that as a result of being backed by a once well respected imprint, the duo made up of husband and wife Raphael Lamotta and Dana Diaz-Tutaan, has seen their images, histories and profiles splattered across the internets. And while hip sites might feature these folks in some positive, electronically artsy light, that perspective should be rethought.
This is basically the electronic, dance floor version of Sinatra to me. Dude had style, but even that couldn't make up for his slight singing ability. And while nothing that Apsci has created for Best Crisis Ever is meant to function as a ballad, the comparison works. The New Yorkers depend upon an '80s based electronica to get each track over. And since the music is obnoxious enough to make one mutilate ear canals, the half assed singing doesn't really bring it all together in any sort of neat package.
"Big Adventures" does find the pair pulling back on the production a bit and allows creating a proper feature for Diaz-Tutaan. Although, even in this setting, it seems like an updated show tune, this is the one hint at non abrasive electro nonsense.
I'm still reeling, as we speak, about these last two discs from Quannum. And my inability to comment calmly about either should really point to the disintegrating canvas of the label. I'm confident that the honchos over there mean well - I mean they released a J.C. Davis disc for G-d's sake. But this mess right here will not stand.

